The Vault
by Severen
Summary: The Courier and five others set out to investigate a mysterious Vault not seen on maps. What they find is worse than any other nightmare they could ever have. Will have OCs and character death. No one is safe. Pairings if any will be used are unknown.
1. Chapter 1

The Courier and Cass were absolutely exhausted, it was around 7:00 PM when they had gotten back, each one had dropped their weapons as soon as they entered the Lucky 38 and each one had slumped against a separate wall in the elevator as soon as the doors closed. Their clothes were tattered messes with holes and tears all over the place. Cass's hat was missing along with one of her gloves, and her jacket was missing a sleeve.

The Courier's appearance was no different. Her sunglasses were cracked, her Pip-Boy had been shot, but luckily it was nothing she and Raul couldn't fix, her duster was missing its lower half, luckily it wasn't either of the ones Ulysses had given her, something had told her not to take those, the hunting shotgun she had dropped on the way in was completely destroyed, thinking back on it she didn't know why she had brought back all this way.

Their injuries had been taken care of at Usanagi's clinic on the way over, luckily it was nothing serious.

"Hey kid," started Cass," I know you got a thing for me, but do you think you could take Boone or Raul or even the damn eyeball with you on the next one? I need a vacation."

The Courier scoffed," Come on now, Cass, you know I'm not into red-heads. And by the way, what do you call what you do when I don't drag you out with me on these excursions of ours?"

"Drinking, honey. Lots and lots of drinking. Which I will be doing as soon as we get out this elevator."

"You know," started the younger woman," I think I'll be joining you this time, Cass"

Cass laughed," Pshh whatever, kid. I know you. As soon as those elevator doors open you'll be going right to bed, and you'll proceed to wake everyone in the damn suite up." She made some loud snoring noises and a weird face annoy The Courier.

To which The Courier replied by flipping her off, which made Cass laugh.

The elevator doors opened and Cass stepped out, but turned around to see what was holding up her friend," Well, ain'tcha coming in?"

The Courier motioned her head no," I gotta go talk to Yes Man first, I told him I would talk to him when we got back from the thing."

Cass shuddered," The creepy smiley face? Can't you wait till tomorrow? I don't think you'll hurt it's feelings if you don't see it right this moment." Cass nor anyone else among The Courier's party trusted Yes Man completely. From the moment she had met him, she felt nothing but the heebie jeebies at the very mention of his or it's name.

She shrugged,"Hey I don't like it much either but, it did help me kick out the all the assholes out, so it's not all that bad."

"Yeah, whatever, kid," started Cass," just don't stay up there too long. None of us like you being alone with that thing."

"And yet none of you except Boone and Veronica will go with me to see him," The Courier pointed out.

"Hey," said Cass holding her hands up," I just got back from fighting off assholes in prison uniforms with you, I've earned the right to not see that thing."

"That's what I thought," replied The Courier.

The elevator doors closed and she pushed the button for the Penthouse Floor. She rubbed her eyes and took a big drink of water as it moved up. She removed what was left of her duster and simply dropped it,"Thank God I didn't take my nice one," she said to herself. She wiped some grime and dirt from her forehead and cheeks, then ran her hands through her short brown hair a bit. She leaned against the elevator wall resting her eyes for a bit, almost falling asleep, but the elevator doors opening and Yes Man's voice snapped her out of it.

"Hello Ma'am! How are you doing?"

She sluggishly made her way out and towards the big computer screen," Hey Yes-Man. How'd you know i was there and that it was me?"

"Well I heard the elevator doors opening and who else comes to see me besides you? Not that I mind, I'm always happy to see you, Ma'am!"

She rolled her eyes," You're too kind, Yes-Man. You got anything for me or can I go?"

There was a small pause before he responded," Sorry if I bore you Ma'am, but yes I do have something for you."

The small pause wasn't lost on her but she was far too tired think too much about it,"All right lets have it."

"There's a Vault," he explained, then his face changed into a map of the Mojave Wasteland," several miles east of Nellis there is a Vault, a Vault that hasn't been entered 2171. A few days ago however, I detected a small energy surge coming from that area, a very peculiar one. It suggests that someone has found something valuable out there. Possibly one of your enemies," his face then changed into pictures of the NCR and Legion flags, as if to emphasize, then quickly changed back to his default smiley face," I would suggest going out there with a small group of individuals to investigate."

The Courier stood there incredulous, she knew every inch of The Mojave Wasteland like the back of her hand and she had somehow missed a Vault near Nellis? She tried to check her Pip-Boy but the screen wasn't working at the moment, she had to get it to Raul when she was done here. "Ok, first things first. What exactly about this power surge is so peculiar?"

"Well," he started," normally when there is a inactive Vault there is very little if no power at all keeping it going. The surge that happened was small but peculiar in that it seemed like the power was turned on, stayed on for a few days, then was rebooted, but then never turned on again. Someone is or was working on something out there. Again my suggestion would be for you to go out and investigate to make sure none of your enemies is working on something that could threaten you."

"Or New Vegas," she added.

"Of course Ma'am!"

"Wait a minute, you said it was on for a few days, but you only noticed it a few days ago, that doesn't make any sense."

"Well Ma'am I said I noticed the strange fluctuations in power a few days ago, but I noticed that the Vault has been operational since after the Second Battle for Hoover Dam."

She stopped, all of a sudden angered," And you didn't tell me about this? What the fuck? If there was an active Vault out there I needed to know about it, they could have had valuable technology or a dangerous weapon that The Mojave could use. Or someone could have used on it! Why the hell didn't you say anything!"

"Well Ma'am, I was just following your orders." He still sounded so damn cheerful.

"What orders?"

"After Second Battle for Hoover Dam, you told me not to bother you with anything, and once you were okay with being told about possibly important benefits other things came up. I never had an opportunity to tell you about it until right now, Ma'am!"

Damn he had a point, she tried to calm herself down,"Ok you got me there. So before I move on this I have three more questions."

"Shoot!"

"How did you know it was a Vault? That could have been an old Robco facility out there for all you knew."

"Well," he started," when I noticed the goings-on, I crossed referenced the location with Old World maps, and found that a Vault had been built there."

She placed her hands on her hips and exhaled," Ok, that answers that, uh, who should I take with me?"

"As always, Ma'am that's completely up to you. But despite your team's protests you should take at least three with you. And hire at least two mercenaries. I already have some suggestions for those."

This struck her as strange he had never suggested outside help before,"Uh okay who did you have in mind? Are they reliable?"

"For the right price they are," he replied," some Securitrons spotted the two I was thinking of entering The Atomic Wrangler yesterday."

"Ok gimme their names and I'll get in contact with them tomorrow."

"Oh no need for that Ma'am I spoke to them already, you're supposed to meet them tomorrow at 10:00 AM, at the broken overpass outside Freeside's east gate."

This shocked her, to say the least," Wait what? Yes-Man you got into contact with them?"

"Yes Ma'am, I told you I would be installing software that would make me more assertive, and I thought this would be the best course of action to take."

"Well you installing that software is all well and good, but you don't do things like this without my say-so, you don't know them, or what they can do. They could have hacked you, what if they had? Ok one more time, you do not do things like this without my permission, do you understand me?"

There was another brief pause," Yes Ma'am I understand, and I apologize for doing so, it will never happen again."

Right then and there she should have realized that this was going to end badly, but her mind was weary from the days events and and the stress he had just put her through, it went right over her head. She sighed," Its fine, I'll be ready by morning to meet up with them, until then don't disturb me, I've had enough stress for today."

"Yes Ma'am," he replied.

She started walking out when she heard him call her again.

"Oh Ma'am! One last thing."

She sighed frustatedly," What is it, Yes-Man?"

"You said you had three questions aside from, the other two you asked me before I told you about the mercenaries, you had one more. What was it?"

She pinched the bridge of her nose, she was getting a headache," Uh... oh! Right what was the name of the Vault?"

"Oh a great question Ma'am, this one has a special name. Its Vault 426."


	2. Chapter 2

It was 10:07 AM when The Courier, Boone, Veronica, and Arcade were exiting Freeside's east gate, The Courier being in the lead while the three followed suit. The sun was getting high now, and intense like it always did in the Mojave Wasteland. It would be worse in two hours.

They each walked with their weapons slung on their backs or holstered, The Courier had the Vance submachine gun holstered on her right hip and an assault rifle on her back. Boone had his sniper and .44 magnum, Veronica begrudgingly along with her usual power fist, brought a laser rifle at The Courier's request, and finally Arcade had his plasma pistol and an additional plasma rifle.

"Whistler,"she heard her surname being called, she turned to see it was Boone," what can you tell us about these mercs?"

"Not much, really," she started," I only know what Yes-Man told me. And thats where to meet 'em. So everyone, be on your guard."

They all nodded.

"Why do we need these guys," asked Veronica," we're always going into vaults, hell when its just the two of us. What's so special about this one?"

"From what Yes-Man told me before we left, it's a lot bigger than most of the vaults we've been to. It's even got a special number, 426."

Veronica looked confused,"426? Aren't there only a little over a hundred around though?"

Whistler shrugged," I don't know, maybe we'll find out once we get there."

Now it was Arcade's turn to be curious," What exactly do you think we'll find in this vault?"

She sighed," Welll, if its anything like the last couple of Vaults I entered, it will be full of things trying to kill us. Possibly an abomination against nature or two."

"Ah, yes very cheerful outcomes to hope for, Whistler" said Arcade while.

She chuckled a bit," Thats funny coming from you."

They made their way over to under neath the broken down overpass, hiding from the sun. Aside from the overpass, they were pretty well covered from it. Boone in his assault armor, Arcade and Veronica were in their usual outfits, and Whistler wore the bandoleer she normally wore under neath what others had dubbed her,"Courier Duster." Instead underneath the bandoleer she wore an NCR long sleeve military shirt, just to cover her shoulders and arms.

Ironic considering how possibly at this very moment they were plotting her death. Maybe throwing the General over the dam had been a bit much.

A few moments later they saw two figures standing next to a pillar holding up what was left of the overpass. One was definitely a man, he was around Boone's height. Aside from that they couldn't tell much else. The person next to him was shorter and looked to be a female. They looked to be talking things over. What, Whistler didn't know. As they got closer she was able to make out a little more. Not much due to the shadow from the overpass that was hiding them from the light. As they got close, not more and a few feet away, the two figures noticed them, the man motioned for the girl to go grab something, and she moved behind the pillar to grab whatever it was. This made Whistler a little cautious.

"Guys, be ready for anything." They all nodded their heads.

"You the Courier?"

She nodded.

"You're late," said the she could see him clearly, so she examined him clearly. He was asian, his build was similar to Boone's if not slightly smaller, with black NCR military style hair, looked to be in his late 30's or early 40's. He was dressed in some black combat armor that looked to be of the Van Graff's.

"Yeah, sorry about that," she started not sounding apologetic at all, she crossed her arms," where's your partner? You can understand if I don't feel comfortable with the way you had her hide behind the pillar when you saw us."

"I wasn't having her hide," he replied," I just needed her to get something," he motioned to her to her to come over," see? Here she is."

She stepped out from behind the pillar carrying a duffel bag and a cigarette in her mouth. She was a young girl, maybe 15 or 16 with blonde hair in that wild night out style. Like she didn't try to take care of it. She wore reinforced leather armor.

Whistler stopped," What the fuck is this? You got a kid doing jobs with you?" Her group got surprised looks on their faces, except for Boone, he just stood there with an eyebrow raised.

The merc sighed, annoyed as if he had gone through this before,"She can take care of herself, age in the Mojave means nothing."

"To the Legion," said Arcade.

"Hey, goggles, was I talking to you? No? Then shut the fuck up."

Through this all the girl didn't seem to notice, as she simply kept packing things into the duffle bag.

Arcade moved forward to reply back, but Whistler stepped in first.," Hey cool it!." She said with a quiet, controlled anger. It got the man to back off of Arcade and focus back on her,"Look here I don't normally deal with outside people, but my source tells me I'll need it. You wanna come along and get all the caps we're paying you, then you don't talk to my friends that way. Got it?"

He looked at Arcade then back at her and nodded.

"All right good now lets start over, yeah?"

He nodded again.

"I'm Whistler," she pointed to her self, then the others in order," to my right is Boone, behind me is Arcade, and to my left is Veronica,"Boone gave a nod, Arcade did nothing and Veronica just gave a small salute," and you two are?"

I'm Alex," said the merc he turned around and motioned to the girl to come over," and this is Charlie." She walked over and gave them all the same nod, Boone had given.

"For starters," said the Courier," can she speak for herself?"

"Yes I can," she replied simply.

"All right, if we're gonna do this I need to ask a couple of questions because my source didn't tell me anything about this."

"Thats fine."

"Ok well, how should I use you both?"

Charlie took a drag of her cigarette, then started," I'm good with handguns, submachine guns, and occasionally Alex will have me use a grenade launcher," she stated all this very professionally,"I'm shit with my bare hands, but a knife or something sharp I'm not terrible."

The Courier took all this is in and thought it over, she tried to see if the young girl had lied about anything, from what she could tell, Charlie hadn't," Ok, sounds good. What about you?" She motioned at Alex.

"Well, guns and explosives mostly. But if you need me to repair something I can usually work something out with whatever it is. I'm also proficient with energy and melee weapons."

Once again Whistler took all the information in and tried to see if he was lying. Again she saw there was no lying about anything said, but she still needed to get a second opinion," Ok," she said simply then turned to her crew and spoke softly," anyone got any objections? Veronica, you've been unusually quiet, what are you thinking?"

"Well, I don't like that she's a kid, but I do like her, I say bring them along."

"Arcade?"

"It doesn't sit well with me, but I'll go with whatever you decide."

"Boone?"

He just shrugged," I don't care, I don't like the guy, but I don't see him stabbing us in the back anytime. Soon anyway."

She weighed everything that had just happened in the past couple of minutes, as strange as it was, it all seemed to be on the level, thinking on it, she didn't understand why she had objected in the first place, she had only been 19 when she had been shot by Benny, and by then she had been a Courier for nearly three years. She supposed that she hadn't seen anything like that again in all her time in the Mojave and thats why it had somewhat surprised her, as all the kids she had seen recently were either dead or little," Ok," she said turning around," get your shit packed up if its not already. We're moving out."

And then they headed toward Nellis, in search of the secrets within Vault 426.


	3. Chapter 3

The group moved at a slow pace, wanting to conserve energy before getting to the vault. Although it was more like two groups. Whistler and her people on one side, Alex and Charlie on the other.

The sun was pretty high up now, taking its toll on the people moving through the unforgiving Mojave wasteland. Veronica's hood protected her skin from the sun's intense rays, however it did make her sweat a little more being all covered up. Arcade in his coat, was suffering a bit but he didn't show it much, years of living under such conditions had hardened him. Though not as much as Boone. If he was feeling anything he did not show it, those sunglasses and his emotionless face revealed nothing. Whistler had learned more about Boone in her short time with him than anyone else in Novac had in all the years he had lived there with Carla.

Alex and Charlie were the same as everyone else; suffering but trying not to show it.

The Courier herself was the same as Boone, she was not revealing anything about how she felt outwardly. Inwardly however, she was full of questions and thoughts. She mused a bit to her self about this job. And how peculiar it was.

Why did she need all these extra people? Why the special number for the vault? Why was said vault so well hidden that she hadn't known about it when she had gone to Vault Tec Headquarters? Were there people in the Old World days at Vault Tec that didn't know about this? House definitely knew about it, but had she gone on with his plan would he have told her about it?

So many questions, she didn't like it. Granted it wouldn't be the first time she had taken on a job where she knew fuck-all about the details, but she still didn't like it.

And so she went on like this for the next couple of hours, musing about all these things. Up until they hit Nellis.

They made it there a little before sundown, as they made their way through the demolished houses The Courier noticed Alex and Charlie were a bit more nervous than everybody else. She was inwardly amused by this, but did not show it. It reminded her of her first time trying to make it to the gate without dying. She had broken both her legs a just before she made to the gate and had to crawl the rest of the way her first time here.

"Ah, good times," she said softly.

The main gate opened and Raquel was there waiting for her, cautious of the extra people The Courier hadr, "Hey, Carter. How was the walk over?"

The Courier closed her eyes in annoyance. Veronica and Arcade looked amused while Alex looked confused,"Carter? I thought your name was Whistler."

"Whistler," said Raquel amusingly," is that it for today?"

"Yeah," replied The Courier exasperatedly," that's what it was, I thought Yes Man had sent you the message."

Charlie chimed in before Raquel could reply," Hold on, hold on. Whistler? Carter? Which is it?"

"She never tells," said Veronica, "I've been with her for longer than I can I would care to count and I don't even know her name."

"Whistler, Carter, Melanie, Shannon, Miller, Skinner, Courier, or Wanderer, who cares? You all know who I am. Call me Radroach if it makes you happy, lets just move on, yeah?" Even through her sunglasses, everyone could see that she didn't want to press the issue any further.

After a while everyone just nodded in agreement.

"Goody. Now," she continued," Raquel, where is Mother Pearl?"

Raquel motioned behind her,"In her barracks, she's been waiting for you."

The Courier turned to Veronica, "Okay, I'm gonna go talk to her, you take everybody to our usual barracks. You know where they are."

Veronica gave a mock salute," You got it, boss."

With that The Courier left her group and headed to Mother Pearl's barracks.

...

"Okay children," started Veronica, " if you will all stand in a straight line and follow Ms. Veronica, we will get to our destination in an orderly and timely fashion."

Everyone stared at her blankly.

"A chuckle wouldn't kill you, especially not in this world, ya know."

"Just show us the way," said Charlie.

Veronica turned around and started walking," Onward!" And everyone else followed suit.

Alex made his way next to Boone, "Haven't I seen you somewhere before?"

Boone stayed quiet and looked straight ahead.

"No I'm sure I have. Were you ever in Novac?"

While Alex continued to try to talk Boone, Veronica moved her way over to Charlie, "Hey, kid."

She glanced over at Veronica while lighting a cigarette, "Help you?"

"Well no," said Veronica,"its just that we've all been walking all day, and I don't like uncomfortable silences."

Charlie took a long drag of her cigarette then said," Me neither."

"Right," said Veronica,"So why haven't you said anything?"

Charlie turned to look at her,"Why haven't you?"

Veronica chuckled a bit,"Following the Boss's lead. Whatever she's doing, I usually tend to follow suit."

"Why?"

"Well," started Veronica while stretching her arms a bit," we been through a lot together. And she's kept us alive this along, I figure she's doing something right. Know what I mean?"

Charlie looked over at Alex trying in vain to talk to Boone,"I know exactly what you mean. But why talk to me now?"

Veronica smirked," I already told you, I don't like uncomfortable silences. So what brought you and that guy together?"

"I've known him all my life," started Charlie while throwing her cigarette away," I know he's not my dad, but he's taken care of me."

Veronica looked at the ground,"You know anything about your real family?"

Charlie looked off to one of the barracks where a boy and his mother sat together," They're dead. Don't know how, don't know when, don't even know who they were. Just know they're dead."

"I'm sorry." Said Veronica.

"Don't be," said Charlie," it could be a lot worse."

"How so?" Asked Veronica with a slightly confused look on her face.

"Well," started Charlie while pulling out another cigarette," I could have actually known them. Then I'd REALLY miss them."

...

The Courier made her way into Mother Pearl's barracks. Removing her sunglasses looking around to see not much had changed, everything was still in the same place it had been when she first entered her barracks all that time ago.

"Marla? Is that you?" She heard coming from the area with the couch.

She walked over to see Pearl sitting on the couch with her grenade launcher on her back just like before,"Hello Mother Pearl, it's been a while. And it's just Courier today."

"Oh very well. I don't understand your need to be so deliberately enigmatic." The Courier smiled at this." But yes it has," said Pearl with that big smile on her face that she always wore,"I haven't seen you since that whole business at the Dam." She looked at The Courier's left arm," How's your arm anyway, dear?"

The Courier examined her arm stretched it out a bit,"It's all right, haven't really felt the pain since Hoover Dam." The day of The Battle for Hoover Dam, The Courier had nearly lost her arm to the bullet of an Anti-Material rifle, but luckily Veronica had pulled her back so it barely hit her. But even then it had done it's damage. Caesar's auto doc had helped her quite a bit.

"Well that's good," said Pearl,"I remember getting that message from your hooded friend, I was very worried. You've done so much for us and the Mojave, we'd all be losing a lot if something happened to you."

"I don't know about that," said The Courier while shaking my head," if it's not me, it would just be one of my people."

"Well I doubt that any of them could do what you've done." Said Pearl still beaming with that smile.

The Courier looked off to the side and ignored that last statement," So what can you tell me about this Vault? It's close to here, have you sent anyone to check it out?"

Pearl looked down solemnly," Yes. I did. I sent some of my Boomers to examine it about two days ago. We haven't heard from them since."

The Courier frowned a bit," Shit," this confirmed her fears,"well looks like we have to go in prepared for something bad."

Mother Pearl looked at The Courier with worried eyes," Should I send some of my people with you?"

"No," said The Courier,"Me and my people will handle this," then she held Mother Pearl's hand in her's,"I can't promise you anything other than we'll look for your Boomers."

Tears welled up in Mother Pearl's eyes,"Thank you. One of them was so young, if he's dead at least let us know. Give us closure." She removed her hands from The Couriers and put them together,"You spend the night here first though, get some rest. I wouldn't want the Mojave to lose you because you didn't rest enough."

The Courier would have preferred to just leave and get it done, but she couldn't argue otherwise,"Okay. We'll get some rest then head out first thing."

...

Later on she met up with her group at the barracks that had been set aside for and her people whenever she needed to come out The Boomers' base. Everyone was sitting on a bunk waiting to hear what she had to say."All right, guys," she started,"We're gonna spend the night here, and head out first thing." She turned to Alex and Charlie," The Boomers have been doing better with new people so don't push your luck guys." Alex and Charlie just nodded.

Arcade raised his hand but then went ahead and spoke before The Courier could even acknowledge the gesture,"So, what's the plan once we get to this Vault?"

Veronica spoke up," Same plan as always, I'm guessing: Go in, explore, blow up nasty things, help people if they're alive and friendly, kill them if they're not and get out. Right, Boss?"

"That's over-simplifying it a bit don't you think?" Said Arcade.

"Well, its either simple or its not, I suppose." Replied Veronica.

The Courier nodded, "Basically what Veronica said. But something tells me this one won't be so simple."

"Eh," said Veronica," as long as there's something to punch.

The Courier ignored her last comment. "Mother Pearl sent some Boomers to investigate a while back, but they never returned. We're all assuming the same thing I'm guessing?" Everyone nodded. "All right. Let's be extra careful on this one," she said with some concern," I've got a bad feeling about this."

"But does it ever go that smoothly?" Asked Alex.

The Courier turned to him," Does anything ever go that smoothly in The Mojave Wasteland?"

Alex chuckled a bit and said so very nonchalantly,"No, it fucking doesn't."

They spent the night at the base and got some good rest. As She had promised Mother Pearl they would. But it was the last rest some of them were going to have. The next morning, after getting ready and a couple hours of a trek away from The Boomer's base, The Courier and her people arrived at The Vault. Prepared, but not prepared enough for the horrors and nightmares they were about to experience.


End file.
